A Pack of Tales Ch. 03

Diolch yn fawr, to Sara Rasmussen for her invaluable editorial support and Sarah for help with the Welsh. Mae winc i Connubium.

Please leave comments and feedback for me so I know what works and what doesn't as I write up the rest of this story.

This series will include two kinds of chapters: story chapters, called '(story)' in the blurb and sex scenes, called '(scene)' in the blurb. The sex scenes will be diverse. You can choose to read them all or, if e.g. hetero sex isn't your thing, to skip some and only read the story chapters and e.g. lesbian sex scenes. (You can identify which scenes are what kind of sex from the tags, the category the chapter is uploaded into and description at the start of the scene.)

All characters in this story are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

A Pack of Tales Ch. 3 – Red/Col

Sunday lunch with the pack (story)

Red had never felt about a woman the way she felt about Bryony. When Bryony walked into the farmhouse kitchen, Red's head lifted just like the heads of the rest of the pack. They were smiling, even Max smiled. Rob bumbled forward and stood jumping up and down on his toes. Bryony gave his tousled blond head an affectionate ruffle.

Bryony was like a fairy tale Princess, Red wanted to be like her. She felt suddenly ashamed of the shapeless dumpy mass of her own body, the scruffy cut of her hair. She wondered with hungry wistfulness if life would have been different had she been like Bryony.

Bryony had soft chestnut curls waving about her face and gentle brown eyes. Her skin seemed to glow with the serenity of her smile. She wore some knitted thing that fell around the curves of her big breasts and small waist, outlining them without shoving them in your face.

She smelled wonderful. Red could pick out her scent piercing through the sweet savoury smell of the meat. Bryony smelled like love. If you could have bottled love to make a perfume, you would have called it Bryony.

Bryony came round the table and sat down at one corner near the cooking range. She was so beautiful that Red could hardly spare attention for the stocky muscular man who had followed her, although the power of his personality was like a searchlight darting over them all.

Bryony was like sunlight.

Red knew the man must be Col. He stood behind Bryony's chair, leaning his hands on the table so Bryony was enclosed in his arms, as if he couldn't bear to be physically separated from her.

"Oh that smells lush!" Bryony said eagerly. "I'm so hungry."

"What are you foocking like!" Col laughed. "She's sick this morning, then she's so hungry she makes me stop off on the way here, and then she says foocking McDonalds stinks and is sick again!"

"Christa's food smells nice," Bryony said. Her voice was warm and gentle. She was a good girl from a loving home. Bad things had never happened to Bryony. Red had never dared try to be friends with the girls like Bryony.

Christa had come away from the cooking. She looked intently at Bryony. Bryony lifted her eyes in that serene sunny smile like spring had come to the kitchen in spite of the dark cold February day. Christa gave Bryony an abstracted thoughtful smile, pressing her hand on Bryony's arm.

"P'nawn da, cariadd, (hullo, darling)" Max drawled.

Red turned her head sharply at the casual way he spoke in Welsh to Bryony.

So did Col.

"P'nawn da, Max," Bryony said.

"McDonalds isn't that bad," Rob said in his sing-song Valleys accent.

"You should foocking know!" Col laughed, going to sit down. He passed his hands caressingly up Bryony's arms as he moved to sit beside her, although he hardly seemed the type to display his affection in public.

"Rob had a job in McDonalds once," Rex explained to Red. The whole pack was silently laughing. "Shut up!" Rob protested, but he was laughing too.

"I foocking told you," Col said. "Was it twenty-two burgers you were scoffing at the one go when they caught you?"

"OMG, the smell drove me wi-ild," Rob grumbled. "They put me in the kitchens, how mad is that?! I was drooling over the burger buns all day. I was gonna quit but they sacked me."

Col was speaking to Rob but he was looking at Red. His caramel coloured eyes had narrowed and had darkened to a chocolate brown. He sniffed delicately across the table.

"We found Red in the pub last night," Christa said, moving to stand behind her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Oh yes," Col said in an expressionless voice.

Nobody else said anything. The other women were starting to dish out the meal but Christa still stood with her hand gripped on Red's shoulder.

Now that her attention was focussed on him, Red recognised all the traits of the Alpha in Col: the arrogant thrust of his rough dark-haired head, the commanding glint in his eye, the coiled strength of his stocky muscular frame. He reeked of power and control. Red knew that Rex was the pack leader but he was a relaxed kindly soul, willing to indulge Christa's soft heart. She didn't know why Col allowed Rex to occupy the leadership when Col clearly had the power to make the ultimate decision: you're in, you're out.

"Seems to have had a bit of a rough time, butt," Rex said at last.

Col's eyes flicked at the older Alpha before going back to Red. The corner of his mouth tightened in a light grin.

"You came down to the city from North hoping to lose yourself in the crowds?" he asked Red.

She moistened her dry lips and said in the husky voice unaccustomed to speaking, "Yes."

"Bit of trouble with the packs in the city so you decided to head up into the Valleys," Col said.

Red could only lift her eyes to him in silence, the terror turning them an even paler gold. Col's mouth lifted in his grin, twisted at the corner with what appeared to be a rueful sympathy.

"Where's my foocking lunch," he said. "I'm foocking starving."

Christa moved off to start carving the meat.

~#~

They all ate very politely and with great care. Everyone but the women handled the knives and forks delicately and with intent concentration. The women sat at one end of the table, chatting as they ate. The pack ate in focussed silence, chewing each mouthful carefully, eyes down on the food. Once Rob jostled Rikki while reaching for the salt. Rikki snarled but instantly pulled his elbow in tighter and turned back to his food.

There was a sponge pudding after the meal; just a small portion each. They were only eating it as a light politeness. By now the pack was replete and content, stuffed with a week's worth of meat. They could go a while now on lighter fare.

Bryony said she was tired. To Red's surprise, Col said she should lie down in the sitting-room but made no move to go with her. "Foock off," he said generally to the table. "We'll bring you some tea in a minute." They rose in an obedient mass and ambled away, leaving him with Rex and Christa in the kitchen.

Christa was putting the big kettle back on the hot ring of the range. When she turned round, Col's bright eyes were fixed on her. His mouth was open in the silent panting laugh.

"What the foock have you found now," he said. "Wasn't it enough trouble for you, bringing Max into the pack and now you've got to pick up some ragged-arsed bitch from the street?"

"She's so young," Christa remonstrated. "The poor kid's really been through it, you can see. She was at the end of her rope when we saw her in the pub. Fainted, like, trying to get out of the door."

"She was running from the pack, you silly cow," Col said affectionately.

"She needs a pack," Christa said. "She won't have to run from us."

"If a sniff of her gets round, you'll have every pack in the city up here trying to foocking snatch her off us," Col replied. "We keep our heads down – all except you, you've only got to hear the word 'trouble' to go and stick your nose in it."

"Like when we brought you in," Rex said.

Col grinned and jerked his head in acknowledgement of this touch.

"I didn't know there were girls," Christa said, pouring hot water in to warm the big-bellied brown teapot.

"What, you thought only foocking men are bastard enough to have this wished on them," Col scoffed. "It comes over you when your emotions get too much for you. Women are better at emotions so less of them change. I've seen some right bitches in London."

"She must have been through something terrible," Christa said, swirling the hot water in the teapot and going to pour it in the sink.

"Don't you get prying and asking her," Col warned. "Of course the silly bitch has been through it or she'd never have turned. But if you start asking, she'll do a runner."

"Isn't that what you want?" Christa demanded, turning with a sparkling grin on him.

He gave a silent panting laugh.

"Nah," he admitted. "I don't want to hear about what the other packs would do to her. I don't like cruelty to animals."

~#~

Nye, Jenks and their wives lived elsewhere and had driven off in one of the white vans. Bryony had gone in search of something for Col. The cubs took Red with them to a sitting-room at the front of the house: a big room full of scruffy armchairs and two sofas with hair all over them. The sitting-room was tidy; photographs and ornaments neatly set out on a sideboard against one wall, but hoovering would only get so much of the hair off the furniture and the rugs scattered across the wooden floor.

Rikki and Rob chucked themselves into a couple of armchairs, producing tablets on which they started playing an internet game. They chatted to each other about the other players and made fun of each other's online names to Red.

"Rob wanted to be Wolfman, how lame is that!" Rikki said. His dark eyes were fixed on his screen. He grinned as his thumbs flicked at the tablet. "He had to be Wolfman973!"

Max had gone to stand looking out of the window, his hands in his pockets jingling his keys and coins.

"Col is ... the Alpha?" Red asked. She had sat down in the armchair nearest the door. She couldn't help it. Even though Christa kept telling her she was safe, she always tried to get a chair near the door.

"No, Rex is the Alpha," Rob said. "Ah! Look at that, I lost an arm."

"Well you've got nine left," Rikki consoled him.

"Col is the Alpha heir apparent," Max said in mocking light tones without turning round from the window. "Mr. Sexy Wolfman69."

Rikki and Rob raised their eyes briefly from their tablets at this. They sniggered in anxious embarrassment.

"Don't you feel it?" Max enquired. "You wouldn't spread your legs for Rex but you would for Col, wouldn't you." Red felt the blush go hot up her face. "I would," Max said, "any day of the week."

Red's ears were twitching. She could feel the hairs rising on the back of her neck.

"Or the lovely Bryony," Max continued in that sarcastic careless drawl. He was still looking out of the window. Red could see the faint reflection of his pale face in the glass. He must be able to see the reflection of the armchair she was sitting in – and the door. "Do you prefer sweet Bryony? Even I wouldn't mind a pop at the Bryony cherry."

Col shot through the room from the doorway so fast he was just a blur in Red's eyeline. He grabbed Max by one arm and his hair and slammed his head against the wall. He chucked Max down on the floor and fell on him, punching him in the head. Max's black hair shook back with the force of the blow.

Rikki and Rob had dropped their tablets with shrill shocked yelps. Red gave a long-drawn howl, backing towards the door. Then the cubs all stepped forward, their mouths open and panting. They twisted their heads and bounced on the balls of their feet, waiting to see what would happen. Red thought, Why didn't Max show his tummy?

Max had curled into a ball with his arms over his head. Col punched him in the back, he writhed on the floor. Red was shocked to see that he was laughing. He was crying with pain but he was laughing too, and in the crotch of his tight designer jeans was an obvious hard-on.

Col had realised this too. He got up away from Max, delivering a savage kick at his back. "You foocking poof!" he said in intense rage. "I swear I'll foocking kill you one day!"

Red backed softly to the door, her gaze fixed on Col and Max. She stopped, feeling the thin edge of a tray in her back. She turned her head, her yellowing eyes wide, to see Rex standing behind her with the tray of mugs of tea in his hands and an annoyed frown on his gentle face.

"Do you take sugar?" Rex asked. Red stared at him. "Sit down," he said in a firm clear voice. He raised his voice to the others, "Christa says can you keep the noise down!"

Col, breathing heavily and bristling against his collar, stepped slowly away from Max. His lip was lifted up from his yellowish teeth in the snarl. Max lay on the floor crying and laughing silently. Rikki and Rob sat slowly back down again, reaching for their tablets.

"Oh shit! I lost my other nine arms!" Rob said indignantly.

Bryony had come in behind Rex, she cast a puzzled look at Max and said: "Beth s'yn bod, Max? (what's the matter)" but Col snarled at her, "Sit down and shurrup!"

She rolled her eyes round at Red and made a face, scrunching up her nose as if to say, "Boys!"

"I don't feel like having tea today," she said to Rex. "Come and sit with me," she said to Red, her gentle eyes lifting in the serene smile.

Red sat nervously on the edge of the sofa beside Bryony, clutching her mug of tea so that the burning heat of it pressed into her knuckles. Her nerves were so overstrained that when she had the chance to sit quietly chatting she felt like jumping up and screaming in hysterics.

Max had sat up on the floor and bent his head over his mug of tea. Col was crouched in his armchair, peering alternately at Bryony, Max and Red.

Bryony was talking about some shopping she had done with Christa recently, different clothes shops. Red responded politely. Bryony started grumbling that her phone wasn't working properly, it wouldn't take pictures any more. Red lifted her head at this and offered to look at the phone. It was only that Bryony had filled the phone memory up, so Red offered to help her download her photos. Bryony said, "Oh thank you, that would be great. Why don't you come by my place one evening next week?" After a while Red realised she was talking about how much she herself loved to take photos and showing Bryony the photos on her own phone. She had put down the mug of tea and was leaning back into the sofa cushions close to Bryony, snuffing up her delicious smell of love.

The hairs were stirring on the back of Red's neck. Looking out of the corner of one eye she realised that Col was now watching her more than he was watching Max.

Bryony gave a tiny yawn. Col said, "You should have a rest." The cubs' eyes flicked up at this, they got up and left the room and Red hesitantly got up and followed them. At the last minute Col came after her. She stopped in the doorway and turned her hazel eyes to him. They were going a pale yellow with a dark rim round them. She was trembling.

He was the true Alpha. Max had put his finger right on it when he said she'd spread her legs for him. It was disgusting, the last thing she wanted, but she would do it if he demanded it of her. She could feel her cunt going wet for him already, the tears rose in her eyes.

"I know what you are," he said very softly. "You're safe with us, kiddo. You're one of the pack, that's all you'll be to any of us. Nobody will treat you any different from the other cubs, not even Rikki, even when you come on. Do you get it?"

The relief was so intense she felt her knees sagging, but he had something-else to say. He stared into her eyes and snarled softly, "I know what you are and if you so much as sniff at my bitch I'll tear you limb from foocking limb." The corner of his lip lifted above the yellowish teeth.

Later she saw them through the sitting-room door which had been left ajar. Bryony lay sleeping on the sofa like the Princess waiting for the magic kiss. Col sat on the floor by her head, leaning back on the sofa. He just sat there quietly with his eyes closed and an unusual look on the lean hard planes of his face. He looked as if he were at peace with the world.

~#~

There was a light sandwich tea in the sitting-room when Bryony woke up. The cubs were in a playful bantering mood although Max sat some distance from Col with a sly grin on his mouth.

It was dark outside, and a wind was blowing the rain in sharp rattles against the thin glass panes of the windows. Red was glad to be in the warm with Christa pouring the tea and passing over sandwiches and packets of crisps. The cubs politely handed a plate of biscuits to each other which they succeeded in not drooling over (although Rob grabbed a large handful and had to be ticked off). Red couldn't help remembering that only the day before she had not had sufficient money for a packet of crisps. Here she was now, sleepy with good food and looking forward to another night in a proper bed. She felt this couldn't last and that she must sort something out for herself, but she was so exhausted and so cravenly grateful to be allowed to be with the pack, she thought she would figure it out in a day or two.

When Col said he and Bryony should go, Max suddenly asked for a lift down to the city.

"Will you take me?" Rob asked.

There was a moment of stillness in the room, then Christa said: "It's Sunday night. It'll be quiet out, won't it?"

"Oh God!" Max said in a tone of long-suffering despair.

"Why can't you take your own foocking car?" Col was bristling at the prospect of taking someone in the backseat of his car, who would be sitting drooling over either him or Bryony from behind.

"If you want a foocking ride, you'll take him and you'll make sure he gets home safe," Col said angrily.

"Whatever," Max said, pretending to resigned annoyance. He bent his head down to hide his grin of triumph. Red knew he'd got what he wanted: the ride in Col's car.

Christa said Bryony must have some of the joint of meat to take home with her to use for sandwiches in the week. Bryony didn't want to, but Christa was insistent and dragged her off to the kitchen. Max sauntered out of the room saying he must change his t-shirt. It was true that it had got crumpled and there was a boot mark in the back of it. Col said if Max took too long, he'd foocking leave without him.

Of course when Bryony came back Max was nowhere to be seen, even though she had been a long time. Bryony looked as if she was upset about something; Red could smell the anxiety off her. She took hold of Col's arm and looked up at him through her lashes, nestling to his side in a manner which made him turn his eyes to her in puzzlement.

"Where's that foocking poof?" he growled, giving Bryony's head a casual buffet.

Rob tried to defuse the tension by saying, "Here I am!"

Col snarled, "You're not a poof, you're just gay. Get in the car."

"I'll go and get Max," Red offered.

When she got to his door, it was open. Max had changed his shirt and was sprawling on his bed, leaning his head on one elbow and lazily turning the pages of a magazine.

All along one wall hung a collection of dog leashes and a couple of coiled whips. Red tried not to stare at them as she said, "Col's waiting for you." Underneath the whips and leather leads and chains was the pair of fine Italian leather shoes; Max was wearing some Chelsea boots with elasticated sides. Red felt the drool collecting in her mouth at the delicious mix of scents coming off the Italian leather across the room.